


mazing from the main

by ideare



Category: Mamamoo
Genre: Alternate Universe - Dystopia, Alternate Universe - Post-Apocalypse, Gen, Inspired by a Movie
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-08
Updated: 2017-02-08
Packaged: 2018-09-22 22:20:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,346
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9627821
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ideare/pseuds/ideare
Summary: hyejin, wheein, and byulyi run into trouble on their way to deliver yongsun to the citadel.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [tide_ms](https://archiveofourown.org/users/tide_ms/gifts).



> inspired by the world of mad max: fury road.  
> title from [_flame-heart_ by claude mckay](https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/flame-heart).

The sun is shining a pale white through the heavy, steel grey of the sky. Hyejin isn't used to it, and the colour unnerves her. So use is she with the never-ending scorch blue that blinds them during the day, leaving no room for escape, and the deep hum of vignetted purple that encroaches the night. This new shade of sky is unsettling.

Yongsun squints up through the dusty windshield, the ropes they've used to secure her straining against her chest in her movements. "Looks like it's going to rain."

She says it like the tiny drops muddying the dust on the windshield aren't a clear sign that it already is, as if she alone had been the only one capable of foretelling this premonition. So use is Hyejin to Yongsun's mumbled mantra of "the rains are coming", that she at first fails to recognize the altered sentence for what it is; she realizes with a start that has her jerking the steering wheel slightly to the right, that Yongsun really had predicted this.

"Guess the oracle was right." Wheein sounds amused in the back of the sheltered truck bed. She adjusts her weapon as she shifts to peer between the opened window at the back of the driving cabin.

"Don't call her that!" Hyejin snaps. If someone said the same thing over and over again, repeatedly for weeks on end, it was bound to come true at some point. Especially if that thing was regarding the weather. Nevermind the fact that this had to be the first rain drops in decades, maybe even centuries. Nevermind that Hyejin's whole life has only ever known unbearable heat in an ocean of sand; that her only taste of water was whatever she could scrounge back to their rooms before the waterfalls ended. It still didn't mean that Yongsun was a real prophet. Real prophets surely had the foresight to see their own kidnapping. 

"I'm just saying," Wheein shrugs and Hyejin catches the tail end of the movement in her rearview mirror, "the kid was right."

"She's older than all of us," Byulyi drawls from under her cap. She had been 'keeping watch spiritually', for the past few miles and this is the first thing she's said in hours. She pushes her cap up, but her face is still obscured in its shadow. "She's probably older than anyone you've ever talked to." Byulyi's the only superstitious one out of the trio, and she had been against scouting in the Woodlands from the start.

The Woodlands were long out of view - a few weeks away, to be exact - but Byulyi still crossed herself every time she made eye-contact with Yongsun. There may not be any greenery in the Woodlands, but all those trees, gnarly and stubborn, had been around since before the citadels were formed. And their hollowed trunks hid more than just the occasional crow. There were rumours that whole cities lay below the roots of those trees. No one had ever been stupid or reckless enough to find out for sure.

Wheein's laugh rings out in the empty space around them, sending a shiver down Hyejin's spine. "Okay, but maybe let's not laugh at her either," Hyejin suggests, taking a quick glance at Yongsun through the corner of her eye.

"I'm not laughing _at_ anyone, I'm just laughing _in general_ ," Wheein assures them, a hint of laughter still edging her words. She turns back to the opening at the rear of the truck bed, lifting her binoculars up to give the horizon a quick scan. There's no need to be sloppy; just because the weather has abandoned it's usual rules, it doesn't mean that Wheein has to ignore her basic training. 

In the distance, thimble-sized clouds of dust morph into the gentle rumble of approaching vehicles. Wheein lets her binoculars fall, the strap tugging harshly at the back of her neck, the binoculars themselves smacking painfully into her stomach. "We have company!" she shifts her weapon into a ready stance in her hands as she scooches slightly closer to the edge of the truck bed.

Wordlessly, Byulyi sits up, pushing away from the driver's cabin where she had been leaning against. She turns her cap around so that the brim rests against the back of her neck, before picking up her rifle and stretching out on the truck bed. The metal is on just the right side of hot against the thin material of her top. She takes a deep breath, steadying her breathing, preparing to shoot if Hyejin can't outrun the people following them.

Hyejin feels her heart jump and her stomach lurch a little bit. She speeds up gradually, pressing the accelerator down until the gears are on the edge of complaining, before pressing down the clutch and shifting gears. Despite the increase in her heart rate, she tries to remain calm. This is her first real chase and she can't afford to mess it up.

Yongsun squirms around in her seat before managing to turn enough so that she can look outside the truck's opened window. Her hair whips around in the wind, obscuring her vision for a few seconds before whipping upwards to thud a gentle rhythm just at the edge of the roof of the truck. She sees the dust cloud ringed with an angry purple hue, but can't make out the vehicles. From that alone, she knows that these newcomers following them aren't her people.

Yongsun pulls her head back into the cabin. After a few precious seconds of internal debate, she turns her head towards Hyejin. "There's a valley entrance up ahead, on the left-hand side. You can only see it if you've been there before, so turn when I say. They won't be able to follow us."

Hyejin frowns, but doesn't take her eyes off the makeshift road. She has always been suspicious of Yongsun, ever since Yongsun had climbed up from between the roots of that tree back in the Woodlands and calmly entered the cabin of the truck. Hyejin had almost screamed when she first saw Yongsun, just sitting there, staring at her through the window. Naturally, she had tied the other girl up post-haste, before calling Wheein and Byulyi back to the truck.

Whatever Yongsun was planning, Hyejin doesn't think that now would be a good time for her lie by omission to come out. Actually, she would prefer that neither Byulyi or Wheein ever find out that Yongsun was less 'captured' and more 'turned herself in'. It would ruin her reputation and put the whole group on eggshells, more so than they already were after leaving a place deemed sacred and forbidden by everyone they knew. (Even if not all those people actually _believe_ in the superstition surrounding the Woodlands.)

Yongsun sees the apprehensive aura that Hyejin has come over her, and lets out a small sigh like she's seen the others do whenever she used to talk about the rains coming. It was when the sky was the same sapphire blue it always had been during the day since as far back as anyone could remember. "You don't have to trust me, but you should. I don't want those people to catch up with us anymore than you do." 

Hyejin worries her lip, giving a slight nod as if she's being betrayed by her own body.

"So, turn on my say so," Yongsun reminds her, "a hard left in three... Two... Now!"

The tires churn up a brief wall of sand as the truck skids left. Hyejin hears Wheein's grunt as she's thrown further back into the truck bed, and the slam of Byulyi's shoulder as she connects with the other side of the truck. In front of them is what looks like an impenetrable wall of sandstone. There's no time for Hyejin to turn or change her mind as they zoom towards it. Hyejin has to fight to keep her eyes open. She's really starting to regret ever volunteering to search the Woodlands. 

There's a reason why some places are only remembered by rumours.

**Author's Note:**

> sumi, thank you so much for the beta work.


End file.
